State Audit Office States Georgian Dream Has Surpassed Limits Set By the Law on Contributions from One Income Source

According to the State Audit Office, coalition Georgian Dream has surpassed the limit of 500 000 lari set by the law on contributions from one income source.

The statement of the SAO reads that “article 27, paragraph 7 of the Organic Law of Georgia on Political Unions of Citizens states: if individual contributors receive all or part of their incomes from one source (physical or legal persons or persons connected to them), their total annual contribution to any given political subject cannot exceed 500,000 GEL; in addition, each individual contribution cannot exceed 60,000 GEL.

The article further provides that violating this restriction does not incur responsibility for the political subject or the donor, in cases where the political subject and the donor are unaware of having surpassed the limit. In these cases, the SAO is responsible to provide a five-day period for rectifying this violation and inform the subject thereto.

“Because the primary purpose of the SAO is prevention of violations in upholding the law on party finance, the SAO informed political coalition Georgian Dream that they have surpassed the 500,000 GEL limit set by the law on contributions from one income source. Since 1 January 2012, the political subject has received a total of 623,858,75 GEL from those natural persons that receive their income in full or partially from one source – Bidzina Ivanishvili. Therefore, the limit set by the law has been surpassed by a total of 123,858 GEL.

In its efforts to prevent violations, the SAO appealed to the political subject, in accordance with Article 27, paragraph 7 of the Organic Law, as cited above, to return the 123,858 GEL received in excess of the 500,000 GEL cap to the donors within a five-day period. The SAO submitted to the political subject a list of their individual donors, including those whose contributions were made after the date when the 500,000 GEL limit was surpassed. In addition to the names of the donors, the SAO submitted to the political subject a list of companies, which served as the source of income for the donations, which in total have exceeded the 500,000 GEL limit.

The SAO is obligated by the law, in order to prevent violations, to ensure that this information is accessible to the public. To this end, the SAO also informed those individuals who receive all or part of their income from Bidzina Ivanishvili and companies associated with him that the political coalition Georgian Dream has surpassed the 500,000 limit set by the law on contributions from one income source. Therefore, donations made by them to the political subject will be illegal,” the SAO statement reads.

Interpresnews